Zimbabwe Vacation #3

Day 3

Today, April 17th was another great day. We woke up early as we usually do with Gracie. But is was great to be in a nice cool tent with sounds of nature all around us. We took our time this morning as we decided not to plan any activities until after our wonderful 8:30am breakfast. Before breakfast we explored the beautiful scenery, and watched as scores of birds and mist gently lifted off the top of the river. Here at Antelope Park there is a long list of activities to choose from. Anything from a safari drive, carriage rides, walking with lions, riding elephants, feeding lions, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, with our kids being so small there were only several things that they were aloud to do, or that they would enjoy. The one thing that we all agreed the kids would love was the carriage ride through the bush. So after breakfast our group decided to do a horse drawn carriage ride through the game park. The carriage ride was great. Beau and Abbi just loved being pulled by horses, not to mention all the big game animals that we were able to see. We saw one herd of giraffes (at least 5-10) that walked right in front of our carriage. This was tremendously exciting for me, but you can imagine the look on Abbi and Beau's face as the giant beasts crossed our path. In the middle of the 2 hour carriage ride we stopped for snacks at an unusually large tree where a large tree house awaited us. Paul and I took turns carrying Beau and Abbi up the multitude of precariously placed, yet sturdy tree steps for an excellent view of the vast African wilderness. We thoroughly enjoyed our carriage adventure, and had another great meal waiting for us afterward.

Probably the highlight of our short trip so far, has been Shea and I's lion walk. Today we were fortunate to have two of our friends from Karanda, Anna and Nicci meet us for part of our trip. Thankfully for us, they graciously asked the 4 of us if they could watch our kids why we enjoyed one of the more adult adventures here at the park. Shea and I always hate being away from the kids(Oh...who am I kidding...any chance for a small break and trustworthy babysitting is always a welcome chance to spend some time together). So we quickly and gladly accepted and decided that we would partake in Antelope Parks famous “lion walk”. According to the park they were the first safari outfit to ever provide such and opportunity with the un-tamable “king of the jungle”, and still one of the few places in the world where you can actually walk with lions. We've heard wonderful things about this experience, and I immediately jumped at the chance. Shea took a little more coaxing(I wonder why....she has actually taken car of 2 lion attack victims in the hospital both of which were supposedly pet lions), but eventually she agreed.....so we signed up. The walk was an amazing experience. Antelope Park has one of Africa's largest lion conservation programs. The steps of the program our actually quite involved, and I don't want to bore you with the details. But the goal is simple. They want young lions to grow up self sufficient to where they can eventually be released into the wild and survive on there own. The lion walk usually takes place with lions between the ages of 15 to 18 months. The primary purpose is for the guides to see how these younger lions react to other animals and situations in the wild, and to see if they are ready to progress in the program. Today we were with 3 lions. Two males and one female. They were probably 75% of the size of a full grown lion, but still very intimidating creatures. And as we learned lions can never be tamed. No matter how used to humans they are, they can turn on people within seconds for no apparent reason. Supposedly the owner learned that lesson the hard way, when one of his female lions attacked him and took his arm.(a fine thank-you for giving the lion such a nice habitat). So needless to say, we were excited but cautious about the whole experience. The walk started at the edge of the bush where these 3 lions awaited us in a large cage. They were released from the cage right in front of us, and the walk began. We had 3 guides and one other couple with us. The lions were in charge of were we went, we were just lucky to be so close, and able to watch there every move. They started the walk by spotting several zebra about ¼ of a mile away. They all 3 worked together to stalk there potential pray as we walked anxiously right behind them. Unfortunately for us, the zebras caught wind of the situation and quickly retreated, but it was still awesome watching them as they worked together to try and take down some food. We also watched them play, climb trees, and roll around in front of us. We have some great pictures to prove it. The walk lasted about 1-2 hours, and was and great experience. Even by the end Shea kind of warmed up to the idea of the lions. Although she has one encounter when one of the male lions approached her and made strong eye contact (they call it the lions “natty eyes”). So she quickly slammed her stick(as we were told to do), and said “no” and the lion slowly turned and went the other direction. The goal is to always make them feel like you are the dominant animal whenever they get closed to acting up (like my little wife is really dominant over a 200-300 lb male lion). But thankfully it worked very well. The trainers did a great job, and I don't think we had any other “near death” experiences. Overall it was a wonderful time, and something Shea nor I will ever forget. The rest of the night was great. We had another wonderful dinner, got the kids to bed, and crashed ourselves slowly thereafter. Praise God for another great Day!